24th Sunday of Year A

May the good Lord grant you heart full of compassion that will enable you forgive your offending neighbour, even when he does not or before he asks for pardon. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Sirach 27, 33-28; Romans 14, 7-9; Matt 18,21-35: 24th Sunday of Year A)

            This Sunday’s liturgy gives us lessons on forgiveness and mercy. In our life, forgiveness is of great importance, for we are all sinners, imperfect beings and often offend God and one another and if there were to be no forgiveness the situation would have been tragic without any way out. This would have given rise to vengeance upon vengeance till utter destruction. Even, we see traces of this among us today. God in his benevolence came into the world to bring us his mercy and pardon and He asks that we should also show forgiveness.

              Already, in the Old Testament, there is rapport between the forgiveness we receive from God and that which we are to accord to our brothers and sisters. The gist of the first reading, from the book of Sirach, is the need to forgive others. The author of this book places the basis of this forgiveness in our need to be forgiven. We are all sinners; we have so offended others. Therefore, we are all in need of forgiveness. If we are not willing to forgive those who have offended us, how can we hope to be forgiven our own offences? Here in this reading, the basis of forgiveness is not mutual compassion or mercy. The point is not forgiveness of others but forgiveness by God. If we are vengeful, we will suffer God’s vengeance. If we nurture anger, we cannot expect to enjoy God’s healing. If we are not merciful, mercy will not be extended to us. But if we forgive, our own prayers for forgiveness will be heard. In various ways Sirach insists that it is our own need for forgiveness from God that should prompt us to grant the same forgiveness to others and not consider whether others have earned our forgiveness. 
            Jesus fortifies the teaching of Sirach with a parable that brings out the incoherence of behavior of one who is pardoned and yet refuses to pardon. In this parable, Jesus refers to forgiveness in terms of debts just as he teaches his disciples about forgiveness using the same image of debts in the “Our Father”: Cancel our debts as we cancel the debts of those who owe us. In the parable of the gospel reading of today Peter asks Jesus: Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother who sins against me; up to seven times? The rabbis taught that the duty to forgive had been fulfilled if one forgave an offender three times. Peter must have thought that he was being extraordinarily generous if he was able to forgive seven times, a number that carries overtone of completeness. However, Jesus indicates, that was not even enough for members of his community. He insists that an offending member of the community must be forgiven seventy-seven times. This means, there is no limit to the number of times we must be willing to forgive those who have offended us. Jesus employs a parable to illustrate the extent to which his followers must be willing to forgive and the consequences that will befall them if they do not. 

The parable describes the manner in which forgiveness operates in the kingdom. The text tells us that the first debtor owed ten thousand talents, while the second debtor owes a hundred denarii. Since one talent was equivalent to six thousand denarii, the second Man’s debt was only one-six-hundred-thousandth of the first man’s debt. The ludicrous contrast demonstrates the difference between the mercy of the king and hardheartedness of the first debtor. Punishment for not paying debts was meted out in proportion to the debt owed. Since the first man owed an outrageous amount his punishment was quite severe. He was threatened with being sold along with his wife, his children, and his property. In other words, he would loose his membership in the household and his status of freedom in the kingdom. Since the second man only owed about three months wages there was a possibility of his debt being paid, if not by himself, then by his family. Both men fell at the feet of the one to whom they owed the money, and with exactly the same words.They begged for patience. Neither asked that the debt be forgiven. They both promised to pay back, although neither seems to have had the means to do so. The situation of both debtors is more or less parallel, but the conclusion is completely opposed. The servant who is beneficiary of the generosity of the master does not want to listen to his fellow servant and throws him in prison till he pays what he owes. The attitude is certainly absurd and indeed scandalizes the other servants who perceived the situation as incoherent. We exhibit the same attitude of incoherence when we refuse to forgive our brothers and sisters. God has exonerated all our grave and big debts; from the time of our baptism he has, out of his rich mercy, has forgiven us our original sin. He forgives us other sins we commit as soon as we show the slightest sign of remorse. He uses our faults as occasions for more abundant graces and generous love. But if we close our hearts to those who have offended us as they plea for forgiveness, then we indeed wallow in great depth of incoherence. And this is precisely what Jesus wishes us to learn from this parable. If we cannot forgive others, perhaps we have not been transformed by God’s forgiveness of our faults. It may be that we have not been transformed enough. The process of becoming a forgiven person takes time. Perhaps, we need to be forgiven seventy-seven times before we can forgive once, but as disciples of Jesus, we are expected to offer the forgiveness we have been given and not show incoherence by not forgiving others. 

    Jesus wishes us to understand that such incoherent situation impedes the manifestation of the mercy of God. If we want to be beneficiaries of God’s mercy we must forgive our neighbours their faults against us. This is what Jesus teaches us to pray in the “Our Father”: forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us. It is very difficult to forgive someone who has offended us, because it may be that our honour is at stake or that our very person has been threatened. Very deep feelings are involved. When we have been hurt, we want to inflect pain in return. Most people would not blame us for feeling like that. In fact, they would even encourage us in our retaliation. However, retaliation is of the world and not the way of the Lord. It is Jesus wish that we do not retaliate but forgive from the heart.

 Forgiveness is not to be forced and should be done in all tenderness and love.  Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

graphics by chukwubike